Radiolab is a radio program and podcast produced by WNYC, a public radio station based in New York City, and broadcast on more than 570 public radio stations in the United States. The show has earned many industry awards for its "imaginative use of radio" including a National Academies Communication Award and two Peabody Awards. Radiolab was founded by Jad Abumrad in 2002, and evolved with co-host Robert Krulwich and executive producer Ellen Horne. As of 2023, Radiolab is hosted by Latif Nasser and Lulu Miller. The show focuses on topics of a scientific, philosophical, and political nature. The show attempts to approach broad, difficult topics such as "time" and "morality" in an accessible and light-hearted manner and with a distinctive audio production style.
History The original version of Radiolab was a three-hour weekly show on New York City radio station WNYC's AM signal. Abumrad, a freelancer for WNYC, produced and hosted the show, which presented documentary radio work in an original style. Dean Cappello, then the chief content officer of WNYC Radio, told The New York Times that it was conceived back in 2002 as a space for experimentation and also as a way to fill a "blank space" on the station’s Sunday-night schedule. The early themed episodes were not always science-related, but tackled issues such as the death penalty, religious fundamentalism and politics in Africa and the Middle East.
In 2003, Abumrad was given a freelance assignment by WNYC to interview ABC News science reporter Robert Krulwich and the two men discovered they had a lot in common: both were alumni of Oberlin College (though 25 years apart), and both had worked at WBAI before moving on to WNYC and NPR. They became fast friends and began collaborating as co-hosts on experimental radio pieces — initially outside of Radiolab. In 2003, they sent their first piece to radio producer Ira Glass for a proposed Flag Day episode of This American Life. The 2-minute piece, which never aired on This American Life, was included in the 2008 Radiolab episode “Jad and Robert: The Early Years.” In the episode Abumrad and Krulwich interview Glass, and ask him his recollection of the piece. "It was horrible", Glass said. In an interview with Abumrad and Krulwich, Glass said: "I never would have put the two of you together on anything again… It's just amazing that you were able to put together such a wonderful program after that." In 2003, Abumrad was joined on Radiolab by Executive Producer Ellen Horne, whom Abumrad credits with breathing life into the show. They developed the show, and by January 2004, Radiolab had become an hour-long, science-themed program characterized by Abumrad's unique sound design style. The program was then still considered experimental. In June 2004, Robert Krulwich appeared as a "guest host" on an episode titled "Time." By the following episode ("Space", aired two weeks later), they were co-hosts. In 2005, the program had its first official season, with five episodes, on WNYC. The program gained national distribution soon after. Live shows were introduced in 2008. Initially distributed nationally by NPR, WNYC began distributing the show in 2015. The change was marked by the omission of NPR's name in the show's opening audio sequence after the tagline, "You're listening to Radiolab...from WNYC." Horne left RadioLab in 2015, and Krulwich retired as co-host in February 2020. That September, Lulu Miller and Latif Nasser became co-hosts, succeeding Krulwich. In January 2022, Abumrad announced his retirement from Radiolab, handing over the reins to co-hosts Miller and Nasser. The podcast offers a subscription called The Lab with which listeners can directly support the production.
Format Each episode of RadioLab is one hour long and tackles various philosophical and scientific topics. Each episode is elaborately styled. For instance, thematic—and often dissonant and atonal—music accompanies much of the commentary. In an April 2011 interview with The New York Times, Abumrad explained the choices in music: "I put a lot of jaggedy sounds, little plurps and things, strange staccato, percussive things." In addition, previously recorded interview segments are interspersed with the show's live dialogue, adding a layered, call-and-response effect to the questions posed by the hosts. These recordings are often unedited and the interviewee's asides appear in the final product. In the same New York Times interview, Abumrad said, "You're trying to capture the rhythms and the movements, the messiness of the actual experience.... It sounds like life." And unlike traditional journalism, in which the reader is given only access to the final article, not the interview, Abumrad added that Radiolab's process is more transparent. The episode credits are generally narrated by people who were interviewed or featured on the show, rather than the hosts, while the program credits are read by listeners. As of June 15, 2009, the podcast offers full, hour-long episodes on a regular schedule with a varied number of interspersed, abbreviated podcasts "that follow some detour or left turn, explore music we love, take you to live events, and generally try to shake up your universe". The extra podcasts, called "Shorts", are occasionally combined into full-length compilation episodes.
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